1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small-sized vehicle, and more particularly, to a small-sized vehicle provided with an engine which includes an output shaft to transmit a drive force to a front wheel and a rear wheel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there are known small-sized vehicles provided with an engine which include an output shaft to transmit a drive force to a front wheel and a rear wheel. Such a small-sized vehicle is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,785.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,785 discloses a buggy (small-sized vehicle) including an engine having an output shaft that transmits a drive force to front wheels and rear wheels, a front gear mechanism including a front propeller shaft which transmits a drive force to front wheels and to which a drive force from the output shaft is transmitted, and a rear gear mechanism including a rear propeller shaft which transmits a drive force to rear wheels and to which a drive force from the output shaft is transmitted. With the buggy, the output shaft and the front propeller shaft of the front gear mechanism are arranged coaxially with each other, and the rear propeller shaft of the rear gear mechanism is arranged to intersect the output shaft at a predetermined angle with a universal joint therebetween.
When the output shaft and the rear propeller shaft of the rear gear mechanism, which intersect each other at a predetermined angle, are connected to each other through a conventional, general universal joint as in the buggy (small-sized vehicle) disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,182,785, the rear propeller shaft of the rear gear mechanism is rotated while varying in angular velocity so that there is caused a problem that vibrations and noise are generated with the variation in angular velocity.